There was another Niland cousin,Tommy Niland, who was a paratrooper with the 501. He was badly wounded in Holland and came home.
Le Moyne Mourns the Passing of Thomas J. Niland, Jr.
Mar 16, 2004
First athletic director and coach built College’s sports program from ground up
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - When former players and colleagues of Thomas J. Niland Jr. speak of his accomplishments as Le Moyne College’s first basketball coach and athletic director, they don’t mention his outstanding win-loss record. They don’t speak of his national coaching honors, or his inductions into the Syracuse, Le Moyne College and Canisius College athletic halls of fame.
They talk about the man: his integrity, his work ethic, and, above all, his fierce commitment to the well-being and moral development of his students. That was the hallmark of Niland’s remarkable 43-year career at Le Moyne.
“Tom left an indelible mark on Le Moyne’s athletic program, one that endures to this day,†said Le Moyne President Charles J. Beirne, S.J. “True to the Jesuit ideal of developing the whole person, Tom cared about much more than success on the field. He cared immensely about nurturing a strong character and a sense of value.â€
As one of 13 children of a steelworker, a decorated veteran of World War II, star collegiate basketball player and president of his senior class at Canisius, he brought a world of experience – and perspective – to his duties as coach and athletic director at the new Jesuit college in Syracuse.
A native of Tonawanda, N.Y., Niland was pursuing his degree in business administration at Canisius when World War II intervened and he put his studies on hold. As a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, he participated in the invasion of Normandy, the airborne drop over Holland, and the battle of Bastogne, for which he would receive the Silver Star for gallantry and the Purple Heart for wounds suffered. He returned to Canisius where, in spite of an arm wounded by shrapnel, he would excel on the basketball court and captain the team for the remaining two years. He graduated in 1947.
That fall, Niland came to Le Moyne to spearhead its new athletics program. As the lone coach at a college with no gymnasium or playing fields of its own, he faced a daunting task.
But Le Moyne was a good fit for Niland, a devout Catholic, and the young coach would go on to lead the basketball team for the next 26 years and serve as athletic director until 1990. In 2000, Le Moyne named the entire athletic complex – comprising the athletic center, playing fields and recreation center – the Thomas J. Niland Jr. Athletic Complex in his honor.
“Tommy Niland came here with the same Jesuit foundation as I had,†says the Rev. Vincent B. Ryan, S.J., longtime member of Le Moyne’s Jesuit community and its first moderator of athletics. “He had his lessons from Canisius. He also had maturity as an officer in the army. He brought all these talents with him, and he was content with the way things were. He didn’t try to rush things. ...But he also could look down the road. He always had a great vision.â€
When Le Moyne’s Henninger Athletic Center opened in 1962, Niland took enormous pride in the facility that he and Ryan designed virtually down to the last showerhead.
As a coach, Niland had an uncanny ability to inspire greatness from his players, and by the end of his coaching career, he had compiled a 327-219 (.599) record and taken seven teams to the NCAA Division II tournament. In spite of opportunities to leave, however, he chose to remain at Le Moyne for the duration of his coaching career.
As athletic director, he went on to establish himself as a national force in collegiate sports as a member of the NCAA’s basketball rules committee and its prestigious infractions committee. He was the first non-Division I athletic director appointed to that body, and when the group levied an historically harsh penalty on Southern Methodist University in 1987 for violations in its football program, a columnist for the Dallas Morning News proceeded to ridicule the committee, and in particular, Niland, whom he called “the torch man.â€
“We’ve got our priorities mixed up,†Niland would say in a Time magazine article a few years later. “We used to play because we thought the kids were entitled and there were some values to be learned outside the classroom – hard work, sweat, the enjoyment of winning, and even some disappointment. Then we got involved in how much money we could make at it, and it changed the game.â€
Throughout his time at Le Moyne, Niland proved time and again that he was a good fit, indeed, for the small Jesuit school committed to coaxing the best from its students
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